"Scott Vernon" wrote ...
Wonder how many have died from heart failure on a boat as opposed to a multi
sinking?

Jeff Morris wrote:
An odd thought, it brings to mind a few unrelated things: A friend of mine had
a J105 which his mother thought should be called "Sheer Terror." Also, the J
that got crunched in the fog in LIS this summer (I think it was a J105), the
owner died of a heart attack while the boat was sinking.

The one case that I know of where a cruising cat capsized on the Bermuda run the
owner died while trapped below because he couldn't find his diabetes medication.
The rest of the crew survived, but several monohulls were lost with all hands in
the same storm.

In the 1979 Fastnet Race disaster, at least one (I think it was actually two) people
died of heart attacks on their boats. The one I recall in detail was left on the
cabin sole of his boat while the rest of the crew abandoned ship into the liferaft,
which promptly got blown away, tumbled, and generally bashed around. They said later
that they'd have been *much* better off staying with the boat (hindsight... 20/20)
but could not have stayed with a dead man and his son forbid them to throw him
overboard. The boat (and it's owner's body) were recovered.

IIRC another died of a heart attack in a liferaft, not sure about that one.

Who thinks up these morbid topics?!?

Fresh Breezes- Doug King